News

Tear it Up and Start Over

2/2/2006

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Tear it Up and Start Over: That is one way to interpret a passage in a Jan. 30 speech by Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In remarks to a Council on Foreign Relations audience, Giambastiani claimed that, in the wake of the latest QDR, the military must shift “from traditional threats to what we call irregular, disruptive, and catastrophic threats. From 'one size fits all' deterrence to tailored deterrence for near-peer competitors, rogue powers, and terrorist extremists and their networks. From peacetime garrison forces to wartime expeditionary operations. From large institutional forces … to larger operational capabilities. From conventional combat operations to irregular, asymmetric operations. … From major combat operations to military support, stability, security, transition, and reconstruction. From large, exposed, forward footprints to leveraging reachback resources. … [F]rom a conscript-mentality approach to manpower to a human-capital strategy that invests in the total force. … [F]rom a culturally limited force to a culturally more aware, more linguistically capable force.” That’s a lot of “from-s” and “to-s.”